Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Fruit Picking Robot

The Guardian reports: [edited]

Quivering and hesitant, like a spoon-wielding toddler trying to eat soup without spilling it, the world’s first raspberry-picking robot is attempting to harvest one of the fruits. After sizing it up for an age, the robot plucks the fruit with its gripping arm and gingerly deposits it into a waiting punnet.

Each robot will eventually be able to pick more than 25,000 raspberries a day, outpacing human workers who manage about 15,000 in an eight-hour shift, according to Fieldwork Robotics, a spinout from the University of Plymouth.

The robot has been developed in partnership with Hall Hunter, one of Britain’s main berry growers which supplies Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. Standing at 1.8 metres tall, the wheeled machine with its robotic arm has begun field trials in a greenhouse at a Hall Hunter farm near Chichester in West Sussex.

Guided by sensors and 3D cameras, its gripper zooms in on ripe fruit using machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence. When operating at full tilt, its developers say the robot’s gripper picks a raspberry in 10 seconds or less and drops it in a tray where the fruit gets sorted by maturity, before being moved into punnets, ready to be transported to supermarkets.
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Friday, May 24, 2019

Gocycle G3

Cycling Weekly reports: [edited]

Gocycle’s folding e-bike uses 20 inch wheels and has the battery fully enclosed in the front part of the frame, with a totally enclosed drivetrain and rear end suspension built in.

Top of the range is the G3 and for 2019, Gocycle is offering the option to swap the magnesium alloy front frame for a high modulus carbon fibre piece. Coupled with the brand’s Pitstop quick release wheels, a lightweight saddle and a carbon seatpost, the carbon G3 has a suggested retail price of £4499.

Gocycle quotes a weight of 14.9kg for the carbon G3 and 16.7kg for the magnesium alloy G3. Both come with a design with no external cabling and a 375Wh battery pack. That should allow 50 miles on a full charge, with a four hour recharge time.
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Thursday, May 23, 2019

Playdate

Edge reports: [edited]

It’s Game Boy-like, a D-pad and two chunky buttons sitting below a screen. It’s perfectly square, and remarkably slim. In the hands, it’s pleasantly weighty. There’s a softness to the matte plastic shell, which we can comfortably grip while clacking the shiny buttons. It feels like it costs money.

The industrial design is the work of Swedish electronics manufacturer Teenage Engineering. And the surprises keep coming. The 2.7-inch black-and-white screen has a resolution of 400 × 240 – around four times the pixels of the Game Boy’s screen. Much like the E-ink screen you’d find on a Kindle, it’s not backlit – the difference is that it’s tremendously reflective, the visuals wonderfully sharp and clear.

The in-built speaker looks minuscule, but is so powerful that we have to hurriedly hunt for the volume controls. Then there’s the contemporary modus operandi that gives the console its name. Every Monday, via WiFi, owners receive a new game, the notification light on top of the case blinking to announce its arrival. Whenever you have five spare minutes, you’ll be able to reach into your own shirt pocket, and make time for your Playdate.

And these games aren’t your basic Game & Watch fare. They’re specially crafted titles from such indie superstars as Bennett Foddy, Zach Gage and Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi.

It’s the latter’s game that reveals the last surprise. We boot up Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure, but now none of the buttons seem to be working. And then we notice the strange metal rod on the right-hand side of the console. From inside the shell, a diminutive crank pops out. We turn it, and our hero begins to move, in the way only a Keita Takahashi character can move – bouncily, ridiculously, with a lurid array of squeaky sound effects – and we start to laugh. And isn’t that quite the point? This little yellow curveball, for all its absurdity, is purpose-built for happiness.

Playdate will cost USD $149. All twelve games in Season One will be included. It is scheduled to ship in early 2020.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Free Font - Public Sans

Public Sans is ‘A strong, neutral typeface for interfaces, text, and headings’ designed by U.S. Web Design System, based on Libre Franklin. Available in 9 weights, with corresponding italics.
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Sunday, May 19, 2019

London - Wigan - London, 18 & 19-05-19


Dusty In Memphis - Dusty Springfield
Just One Smile
No Easy Way Down
I Can't Make It Alone
Son Of A Preacher Man (mono)
Just A Little Lovin' (mono)
Don't Forget About Me (mono)
Breakfast In Bed (mono)
I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore (mono)
The Windmills Of Your Mind (mono)
In The Land Of Make Believe (mono)
So Much Love (mono)

Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
Rocks Off
Rip This Joint
Shake Your Hips
Casino Boogie
Tumbling Dice
Sweet Virginia
Torn And Frayed
Sweet Black Angel
Loving Cup
Happy
Turd On The Run
Ventilator Blues
I Just Want To See His Face
Let It Loose
All Down The Line
Stop Breaking Down
Shine A Light
Soul Survivor

Young Americans - David Bowie
Young Americans
Win
Fascination
Right
Somebody Up There Likes Me
Across The Universe
Can You Hear Me
Fame

Speak & Spell - Depeche Mode
New Life
I Sometime Wish I Was Dead
Puppets
Boys Say Go!
Nodisco!
What's Your Name?
Photographic
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Big Muff
Any Second Now (Voices)
Just Can't Get Enough
Dreaming Of Me
Ice Machine
Shout
Any Second Now (Instrumental)
Just Can't Get Enough (Schizo Mix)

Doolittle - Pixies
Debaser
Tame
Wave of Mutilation
I Bleed
Here Comes Your Man
Dead
Mr. Grieves
Crackity Jones
La La Love You
No. 13 Baby
There Goes My Gun
Hey
Silver
Gouge Away

The Best Of - Green on Red
Time Ain't Nothing
Born To Fight
Hair Of The Dog
Keith Can't Read
Morning Blue
This Time Around
Little Things In Life
You Couldn't Get Arrested
That's What Dreams
Zombie For Love
Baby Loves Her Gun
The Man I Used To Be

Bellybutton - Jellyfish
That Is Why
The King Is Half Undressed
I Wanna Stay Home
She Still Loves Him
All I Want Is Everything
Now She Knows She's Wrong
Bedspring Kiss
Baby's Coming Back
Calling Sarah
No Matter What [Live]
That Is Why (Live)
The King Is Half Undressed [Live]
Jet [Live]
Now She Knows She's Wrong (Live)

Zooropa - U2
Zooropa
Babyface
Numb
Lemon
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
Some Days Are Better Than Others
The First Time
Dirty Day
The Wanderer
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